Gift or Curse
by Trainee Hero
Summary: Re:Superhero Challenge. If he'd known things would end up like this, he would have let himself go deaf. I don't own CSI.
1. Chapter 1

Gil Grissom leaned back in his chair and pressed his fingers against each other. His brow was creased with deep thought and his normally focussed blue eyes were glazed over. If anyone happened to look into his office at that moment they would have been shocked by how different he looked, compared to his usual self. His eyes were bloodshot and red, his grey hair was a mess and his suit was wrinkled so badly it looked like he had slept in it. He had even started biting his finger nails.

Gil slumped forward onto his desk and clapped his hands over his ears, letting out a quiet moan. If he had known that things would turn out like this, he would have let himself go deaf.

He could hear _everything._

The first time it had happened, almost two weeks ago, he'd been at home. He was thankful for that at least. If it had happened at a crime scene, he didn't know what he would have done.

Gil had been sitting alone on his couch, reading a forensic journal that Sara had bought for him. The clock on the wall ticked softly and the whirr of the fan blades made a pleasant sort of white noise. It happened so gradually that he almost didn't notice it at first. The whirr of the fan blades grew steadily louder until they took on the tone of a buzz saw. The clock ticks became like steady blows from a large mallet.

It was agony.

Gil staggered through the house with his hands clapped over his ears, only removing them in order to unplug or remove the batteries from any electrical equipment that hummed or ticked or made any sort of noise at all.

It still wasn't enough.

He'd ended up on the kitchen floor, wearing a pair of ear protectors and crying in agony, trying desperately to block out the deafening sound of his tarantula walking across the floor of its cage.

The second time it had happened was in the wee hours of the morning when the team had been leaving the lab for the day, five days ago. He claimed he had to do paperwork, then shut himself in his office and slammed the pair of ear protectors onto his head. He could still hear the crack of every switch, the slam of every footstep, the thunderous rumble of conversations, the boom-boom of every heartbeat.

And now it was happening again.

He could hear the lab tech's moving around outside, Ecklie muttering to himself in his office, the team chatting together in the break room. Warrick and Nick were chatting about a football game they had watched the night before. Catherine put forth a comment or two as well, but she mostly just crunched on her apple.

Sara was just sitting quietly, flipping casually through a magazine. Every so often she would take a sip of a drink. Her breathing was slow and even, a gentle _hush-whoosh _that accompanied the ba-dump of her heartbeat perfectly.

Grissom tried to focus in on the soothing sounds, hoping that maybe they would give him the ability to bring his overactive ear drums under control. He kept his eyes tightly shut and made his breathing slow and regular.

The soft noises soon replaced the cacophony of the lab activity and Gil relaxed, letting out a deep sigh. He tentatively removed his hands from his ears and smiled softly. If nothing else, at least he could make it through that mornings briefing.

Then Greg Sanders dashed down the hallway, past Grissoms office, heavy metal music blasting from his headphones.

When Catherine Willows came into the office a few minutes later to ask Grissom why he was late for the briefings, she found him unconscious, under his desk, curled into the foetal position with his hands pressed over his ears hard enough to turn the skin red.

CSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSI


	2. Chapter 2

Sara Sidle squirmed in the plastic hospital chair, trying in vain to find a comfortable position. Eventually she settled for sitting forward with her elbows on her knees. Every few seconds she would look up at the door that led to the ward where Grissom was being kept.

She only realised that she had been biting her thumb nail when it started to bleed. She was tempted to go to the bathroom and get some tissue to stop the flow of blood, but she wanted to be there when the doctor came in with the news. So she just pressed her thumb tightly inside her fist and waited.

Ten minutes passed and there was still no word. Sara rubbed her eyes with her fingers and then squeezed them shut. The fluorescent lights were really hurting her eyes. Normally fluorescent lights didn't bother her at all, but the ones in the hospital were really making her eyes sting.

Sara got up and started pacing, her worries about Grissom making her restless. She jumped when her phone rang. A glance at the caller ID told her it was Catherine.

"Hey Catherine," she said, stopping her pacing and rubbing her eyes again.

"Hey Sara, any word yet?" said Catherine's slightly muffled voice.

Sara shook her head even though Catherine couldn't see her. "No, nothing. The doctors should have something by now, right?"

"I don't know. I'm sorry none of us can be at the hospital with you."

"It's okay Cath, I know you all have scenes to process. Thanks for letting me go with the ambulance."

"Well, I know he'd want you to be there. Do you have any idea what might be wrong with Grissom?"

Sara shook her head again. "Not really. It could just be stress, he has been working really hard."

"Yeah, I guess. Call me the second you hear anything, okay?"

"I will. And you catch the bad guys for me, okay?"

"Bye Sara."

"Bye."

Sara put her phone back in her pocket and sat down. She rubbed her eyes again and squinted down the hall. Everything seemed really bright. She tried to focus her vision on a vending machine at the end of the hall. It looked far brighter than it should, but apart from that her sight seemed fine.

Then it was like she was looking through a telescope. Here eyes focussed in on it so hard she could read the allergy warnings on the food packets.

Sara closed her eyes tightly and pressed her palms against them.

"Sara Sidle?" said a woman's voice.

Sara opened her eyes again and looked up at the woman in scrubs. She breathed a silent sigh of relief when she saw her vision was back to normal.

The woman held out her hand for Sara to shake. "I'm Doctor Sharpe, I'm an attending physician here. You're here with Mr Grissom, right?"

Sara nodded, shaking Doctor Sharpe's hand. "Yes, I am. Is he going to be alright?"

"Physically he seems fine, but we're still running tests. We've got him scheduled for a CAT scan in a few minutes so I'm afraid you wont be able to see him yet," said Dr Sharpe. "Do you mind waiting a little longer?"

Sara sighed. Her eyes really hurt, she was getting a sore back because of the stupid plastic chair and she was missing a shifts worth of pay because she was there.

"No, I don't mind."

Dr Sharpe smiled. "I'll come straight to you if there's any news." she said before walking briskly down the corridor.

Sara slumped down into the hard plastic chair once again and sighed. All she wanted was to see Grissom for just a moment. With her luck, by the time she was allowed to visit him her eyes would hurt too badly for her to see.


	3. Chapter 3

Gil was floating through space, the darkness and the silence soothing him. He couldn't tell if his eyes were open or not, but in a strange indescribable way, he could see. Without moving at all he looked to the right, then to the left. There was nothing. No pitch black space, no bright white expanse, just…nothing.

It was wonderful.

_**linelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelineline**_

Sara leaned over the sink in the ladies room and splashed cold water over her face. Her eyes wouldn't stop hurting. She lifted her head and squinted into the mirror above the sink. The eyes squinting back at her didn't look red or sore…

Then her vision telescoped in and she could see into her own retinas.

She jumped back and clapped her hands over her eyes.

'_What is happening to me?'_

_**linelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelineline**_

'_What is happening to me?'_

Gil frowned at the noise. The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it…

Sara.

Was Sara hurt? He called to her, his lips not moving at all.

'_Sara?'_

_**linelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelineline**_

Sara's eyes flew open in shock as she heard Gil's voice in her head. She stared about her, trying as hard as she could to see any other person, trying to affirm that she wasn't crazy.

There was no-one.

Sara stood there, breathing hard, her brown eyes fixed on the wall in front of her.

The wall melted away, she could see people outside-no, walking skeletons-no, skeleton at a desk with no sides- no, skeletons staring at a pile of wire and micro chips sitting on a desk-no…

Gil lying on a flat gurney inside a machine, his chest rising and falling rhythmically.

She tried to keep her eyes on him, even as she fell to the floor.


	4. Chapter 4

Sara squeezed her eyes shut and felt around blindly with her hands. She bumped her knuckles against something smooth and ceramic. The sink. She pulled herself up from the floor, but she had to keep a firm grip on the sink to stop herself falling to her knees. Her head was _killing_ her.

'_I need to get help.'_ Sara thought. She groped blindly for the door, staggering badly when she let go of the sink. She risked opening her eyes a crack.

White hot brightness seared through her head, sending her reeling. Her shoulder bashed against the wall, hard, sending her right arm numb. Sara couldn't think the pain was so bad. Her eyes felt like they were white hot and every move she made seemed to aggravate the pain in her head. Needles of agony raced up her legs as she once again crashed to the ground.

'_Please, please somebody help me,' _was her last thought before she blacked out.

_**linelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelinelineline**_

Rooms away, in the middle of his CAT scan, Gil Grissom slammed back into consciousness.


	5. Chapter 5

"Sara!" Gil shouted. He was momentarily amazed that he hadn't deafened himself with his own voice, but his thoughts soon returned to more important things. "Sara!"

His hands fisted and hammered against the whiteness of the machine surrounding him. "Let me out!" The stunned doctor quickly complied, not wanting to distress his patient.

"Sir, you've been under a great deal of strain…"

"Where is Sara?!" Gil said, panicked. "She's…she's hurt, where is she?"

Doctor Dentini tried to make the nearly hysterical man sit down, but Grissom fought him off and ran out into the hallway. Dentini followed him, not wanting his patient to injure himself of collapse again.

Grissom scanned up and down the hallway, trying to find Sara. He'd _heard_ her, she had to be somewhere. "Sara?" he called out.

Dr Dentini put his hand on Gil's shoulder. "Sir you need to sit down, you're not well."

"I'll sit down when I find Sara. She's hurt and she needs me." Grissom said firmly. Dr Dentini had been in medicine long enough to know when a patient spoke with that tone of voice it was no use trying to placate them. He needed to talk this man down first.

"Okay. Who is Sara?" he asked.

"Sara Sidle, she's… one of my CSIs. She's here in the hospital and she's hurt." Gil started walking away, his eyes never stopping their search. His ears then made the decision to pitch in.

Gil staggered, his hearing kicking into overdrive. All the sounds in the hospital fed into his head.

_**She's flat-lining, we need a defibrillator! Damn, I spilled my coffee, Please wake up, sweetie, We're suing for malpractice! Doctor we need you over here, Incoming patient, stab wound to the chest, BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEEP.**_

And even more than that…

_Darling, I'm trying to wake up, don't give up on me, Work you stupid machine, bring her back! How can they sue us, we did everything we could? Am I going to die? Why can't I feel my legs?_

_Somebody, please help me._

_**Bu-bump Bu-bump Bu-bump Bu-bump**_

Grissom went where Sara's heart was telling him. He got to the woman's bathroom just in time to see Sara being wheeled out on a stretcher. For the briefest of moments, her brown eyes opened and looked straight at him.

Then she was wheeled off into another room.

Dr Dentini couldn't understand it. His patient had apparently made a instantaneous recovery and had led him straight to another person who seemed to be suffering from the same malady. "Mr Grissom, how did you know where she was?"

Grissom turned to the doctor, his face showing his confusion. "I heard her. She called for help, and I heard her."


	6. Chapter 6

Sara Sidle twitched in her sleep, her delicate little nose scrunching up like a rabbit's. Her dark brown hair fanned out around her head like a halo, contrasting starkly with the whiteness of the pillow and the paleness of her skin.

Despite the circumstances, Gil thought she looked like a sleeping angel.

"Sara, darling, I don't know if you can hear me, but I want you to know that I'm here. I'm right here." He placed his larger tanned hand over her small thin one. "Whatever it is that's happening to you, something like it is happening to me too. And as soon as you wake up we'll talk about it, but I know you need to rest now. So you just sleep for as long as you want, okay? Can you do that for me?"

He took the slight movement of her fingers and the twitch of her lips as a yes.

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One word Catherine Willows would never use to describe her colleagues was 'boring'. Grissom and Sara were bad enough on a normal day, what with weird experiments in the fridge and self induced insomnia, but today was crazy even for them. First Grissom passed out at work and had to be rushed to hospital, where he had made an almost instantaneous recovery, and now Sara was unconscious from what appeared to be the same malady. Everyone had been cleared out of the lab in case there were any dangerous chemicals or biologicals on the loose.

What the hell was going on?

She gave a slight wince in pain as one of the doctors that had been sent to the lab took a hair sample and put it in a little plastic baggie. Is this what suspects felt like when they were being processed? Catherine decided she liked being on the non-pinchy side of the tweezers better.

Warrick and Nick stood next to her, fidgeting restlessly.

"Man, how long do we have to stand here like this? It's freezing out here." Nick complained.

"Really? I hadn't noticed." Catherine shot back.

"I just wish they'd let us go to the hospital and see Grissom and Sara." said Warrick. "Who knows what they're going through right now?"

Greg chose that moment to pitch in. "It probably involves some very big needles in very sensitive places."

The reply was a resounding "Shut up Greg," from all of them.


	7. Chapter 7

Sara stirred in her sleep, consciousness creeping closer and closer towards her. If she'd been awake enough to wonder about such things, she would have wondered why it was taking her so long to wake up. Normally she just opened her eyes and that was it.

'_Why am I still in bed? It feels late, did I oversleep? I don't usually do that. Did I get home late? Why do my sheets feel funny? Did I put them in the wrong wash? Maybe Grissom gave me the day off, it wouldn't be the first time he's tried to do that. I smell aftershave. Why do I smell aftershave?! I didn't have some crazy one night stand did I? I wouldn't do something like that, would I? I'm in someone else's bed, that's why the sheets feel weird and I can smell aftershave…Grissom's aftershave. Did I sleep with Grissom? Am I in his bed? I kind of thought he'd have nicer sheets than this and a big fluffy duvet, not blankets. We'd cuddle up under it, like we were in a big cocoon, and we'd fall asleep in each other's arms. If we slept together, why isn't he here? Is he in the bathroom? Is he making breakfast? No, wait, he's here, he's holding my hand. Maybe he's just not a cuddle-y sleeper…'_

Finally, Sara's eyes opened. At first she thought that Grissom's taste in furnishings was really tacky, because who wants that much white in their bedroom? Then she realised she wasn't in Grissom's bedroom at all, she was in a sterile old hospital room, in a hospital bed, with Grissom sitting in a very uncomfortable looking chair beside her.

She really shouldn't have been _that_ disappointed by her situation, but she was.


End file.
